Natasha Irons MP: speeches

Speeches

• 15 May 2025 · Youth Services · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is quite right: there has been a 73% decline in funding for youth services. I congratulate the organisation in his constituency on its centenary.

• 14 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I think we all appreciate the amendment, because we want to protect vulnerable women, children and anybody who is at risk of this sort of harm. Could we not look at doing something similar to the amendment, and the carve-out we have created with it, for our creative industries? If we can protect our vulnerable people, can we not also protect our creative industries from copyright infringement by having territorial exemptions similar to what we have with deepfakes?

• 29 Apr 2025 · Black Maternal Health Awareness Week · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate. Given the complexities and interchangeable disparities that affect maternal health for black women, does she agree that without a national target or framework we are doomed to make the same mistakes again and again? This travesty needs to end, because no mother or child’s health outcome should be determined by the colour of their skin.

• 31 Mar 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.

• 18 Mar 2025 · Stations: Step-free Access · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for securing the debate. East Croydon station in my constituency is the 21st most used station in Great Britain. It has a bridge that has been closed for 10 years, despite the use of local taxpayers’ money, national funding and developer funding. We also have Norwood Junction station, which is the 79th busiest in the country and has no lift access at all. Does he agree that this is not just about reinvigorating the Access for All scheme, but about ensuring that it is delivered consistently, that we create local partnerships and that what is delivered makes sense to the people who are impacted?

• 12 Feb 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  As a graduate of the Croydon Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prime Minister will know that youth services can broaden a young person’s horizons beyond what they could ever imagine. With national spending on youth services having declined 73% since 2010, will the Prime Minister outline how this Government will bring youth services back into our communities, will he look at giving them the statutory protections they deserve and will he visit Croydon East to see at first hand the vital role youth services play in my constituency?

• 8 Jan 2025 · Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill · Hansard source

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  I sincerely thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way. I appreciate the need to look at these issues in the round, but does he accept that there are measures in the Bill that will protect children, based on what we already know? Those measures will help stop children across the country being abused, and make it harder for groomers to get access to them, which is what we all want, is it not? I hope he agrees with me.

• 7 Jan 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T7. The Family Dental Practice in my constituency has faced significant challenges caused by dental contracts introduced by the previous Government. The pilot scheme it took part in caused long-lasting operational financial damages to the practice. How will the Secretary of State support such practices, and will he consider measures such as rebasing the unit of dental activity targets to help them overcome these challenges?

• 18 Dec 2024 · Future Earnings: Impact of Socioeconomic Disadvantage · Hansard source

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  8. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle the potential impact of socioeconomic disadvantage on future earnings.

• 18 Dec 2024 · Future Earnings: Impact of Socioeconomic Disadvantage · Hansard source

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  Independent research from the Social Mobility Foundation highlights a stark class pay gap, with professionals from working-class backgrounds earning, on average, 12% less than their more privileged counterparts in the same roles, and one in 10 people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds finding it difficult to get higher-skilled managerial and professional occupations. Despite the fact that socioeconomic background remains one of the biggest determinants in chances for life for young people in this country, few large organisations monitor it. Will the Minister consider mandating larger organisations to monitor socioeconomic backgrounds, so that we can properly highlight social mobility and give it the attention that it deserves?

• 28 Nov 2024 · National Youth Strategy: Youth Sector Organisations · Hansard source

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  On Tuesday, I chaired the all-party parliamentary group on youth affairs, where we discussed this Government’s plans for a national youth strategy with more than 80 young people and organisations from across the sector, including grassroots organisations such as Reaching Higher from my constituency, which supports young people and families across Croydon. The national plan for young people is urgent, but the 73% cut to funding for youth services under the previous Government has resulted in 4,500 youth workers leaving the sector over the past decade, according to the National Youth Agency. Can the Secretary of State outline how her national youth strategy will support youth workers and attract more people back to that vital work?

• 28 Nov 2024 · National Youth Strategy: Youth Sector Organisations · Hansard source

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  8. What steps her Department is taking to incorporate information collected by youth sector organisations into the national youth strategy.

• 9 Sept 2024 · Post Office Horizon: Redress · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for the update today. My constituent Mahesh, who visited me at our surgery on Friday, told us that he had been assured that his conviction would be overturned—he was wrongfully convicted under the Horizon scandal—but he is frustrated by the length of time it has taken for it to be quashed. It is preventing him from moving on with his life. Can the Secretary of State update us on what work is going on to speed up the process to quash these convictions, so that people like Mahesh in my constituency can move on with their lives?